Automated banking machines are well known. A common type of automated banking machine used by consumers is an automated teller machine (“ATM”). ATMs enable customers to carry out banking transactions. Common banking transactions that may be carried out with ATMs include the dispensing of cash, the receipt of deposits, the transfer of funds between accounts, the payment of bills and account balance inquiries. The type of banking transactions a customer can carry out are determined by capabilities of the particular machine and the programming of the institution operating the machine. Other types of automated banking machines may allow customers to charge against accounts, to pay bills, to transfer funds or to cash checks. Other types of automated banking machines may print or dispense items of value such as coupons, tickets, wagering slips, vouchers, checks, food stamps, money orders, scrip or travelers checks. For purposes of this disclosure references to an ATM, an automated banking machine or automated transaction machine shall encompass any device which carries out transactions including transfers of value.
Some hardware settings of a computer of an ATM may be configured through a basic input/output system (BIOS) program. The BIOS program enables a user to modify the hardware settings stored in a ROM or flash memory chip of the ATM computer. Such hardware settings may configure the display screen, disk drives, keyboard, serial communications, and other hardware devices and functions of the ATM computer.
ATMs generally include a computer and a plurality of bootable storage device drives in operative connection with the computer. Such bootable storage device drives may include, for example, a hard drive, a floppy disk drive, and a CD-ROM drive. The computer of the ATM may be operative to boot up or load an operating system responsive to the boot information or boot record read from the bootable media associated with any one of these storage device drives. Such a boot record generally instructs the computer as to where to find an operating system or other program to boot. The hardware settings configured with a BIOS of an ATM computer may specify which storage device drives to attempt to boot from. In addition, the hardware settings configured with a BIOS of an ATM computer may specify the particular order of storage device drives to attempt to boot from. For example, an order of bootable storage device drives configured in a BIOS of an ATM computer may include: 1) the floppy disk drive; 2) the CD-ROM drive; and 3) the hard drive. Responsive to such a boot order, the ATM may first attempt to boot from a floppy disk bootable media within the floppy disk drive. If a floppy disk bootable media is not located in the floppy disk drive, the ATM responsive to the boot order may attempt to boot from a CD-ROM bootable media in the CD-ROM drive. If the CD-ROM bootable media is not located in the CD-ROM drive, the ATM responsive to the boot order may attempt to boot from the hard drive bootable media.
This behavior of trying to boot from different bootable media responsive to a specified order of bootable media and/or their respective storage device drives set in a BIOS may be useful to an authorized user attempting to service an ATM. For example, if a new hard drive of an ATM is installed, an installation of a new operating system on the new hard drive can be initiated by booting from a setup floppy disk, CD-ROM, or other portable bootable media. Unfortunately, this booting behavior of an ATM computer can have negative consequences. For example, if the setup CD-ROM is accidently left in the CD-ROM drive, the next time the ATM is restarted the ATM may load the setup program from the CD-ROM rather than loading the terminal control software from the hard drive.
In addition, although many ATMs include the computer in a secure safe or chest of the ATM, other ATMs may include the computer outside the chest. Although such a computer outside the chest may still be located behind a locked enclosure or fascia, such an enclosure is often significantly less secure than a chest. As a result, an unauthorized user may be able to open the enclosure to access the ATM computer. An unauthorized user who gains access to the CD-ROM drive or floppy disk drive, could insert a CD-ROM or floppy disk with malicious software. If the BIOS is configured to boot the ATM computer from the CD-ROM drive and/or floppy disk drive prior to booting from the hard drive, the unauthorized user may be able to load the malicious software in the computer of the ATM. Such malicious software could be in the form of a virus or worm that is operative to cause the ATM to dispense cash. Such malicious software could also be in the form of a sniffer program which intercepts secret information, such as account numbers, and reports the information to the unauthorized user.
Consequently, there exists a need for an automated banking machine that is more secure. There further exists a need for an automated banking machine that is more resistant to being attacked by an unauthorized user. In addition, there exists a need for an automated banking machine that is operative to prevent an unauthorized user from using portable bootable media to access the computer of a machine.